23 Apr Dental Plans and Dental Insurance – Not Nearly the Same

No one who is considering a dental insurance policy should start paying premiums without first clarifying exactly what dental procedures will be covered, what the deductibles will be, how long it will take for coverage to kick in after her she begins making premium payments; if there are annual or lifetime caps on coverage; and if pre-existing conditions will be covered.

No one should make a financial investment without having some idea of the return will be, and no one should buy dental insurance without knowing exactly what will and won’t be covered. Far too many dental insurance plans require that the person paying for coverage must wait between six months and a year before they qualify for claim reimbursement. Far too many dental insurance plans tack on high deductibles and low annual or lifetime spending caps, and far too many dental insurance plans will not cover pre-existing conditions, which are often what drive people to need dental care in the first place.

Dental Plans

If you think that dental insurance does not sound overly appealing, you should learn about the major differences between dental plans and dental insurance. While dental insurance policies have strict regulations about what procedures they will or will not cover, dental plans are designed by networks of participating dentists to offer both routine and advanced dental care procedures at significant discounts.

Dental plans allow their members to patronize any (or more than one) of the plan network’s member dental professionals. Dental plans have no deductibles, no annual or lifetime caps, and no clauses excluding pre-existing conditions.

Another of the major differences between dental plans and dental insurance is that the cost of belonging to a dental plan is a nominal monthly fee, and that in return for discounts of 50% or more on your dental care procedures, all your dental work must be paid for at the time you receive it.

The last major difference between dental plans and dental insurance is that, because you will have already paid for your dental services under the dental plan, neither you nor your dentist will be faces with weeks or even months of waiting to find out if the dental insurance company intends to pay your claims. This is why dental plans are popular not only with consumers, but with the dentists who invented them.

The major differences between dental plans and dental insurance Lower monthly fees, no waiting, no deductibles, no spending caps, no exclusion of pre-existing conditions, and best of all, no more wondering if you will end up getting no return on your dental insurance investment because your claim was denied!